A number of Diablo III users have complained in the last few days that they've been banned from playing the game for doing nothing more than using WINE, a means of playing Windows games in the Linux operating system.

It's a tricky situation. On the one hand, Blizzard appears to be banning the accounts because WINE is "Unapproved Third Party Software". Which it is! But on the other hand, WINE can stand for "Wine Is Not an Emulator", because the means via which it runs Windows programs aren't the same as traditional emulators, so maybe shouldn't be seen as such. Most other games - including Blizzard's own StarCraft II, which has run under WINE since launch - have no problem with it.

Affected users point to the fact that, until a day or two ago, they'd been able to play the game just fine. They also say all they'd been doing was playing the game, not running any bots or other exploits.

They probably weren't! But Blizzard doesn't know that. The real problem here seems to have been letting them in in the first place. Had Linux users been blocked from Day 1, this wouldn't be an issue, but letting them think they can play and then bringing the hammer down on established accounts is understandably causing some frustration among those affected.

UPDATE - Blizzard has responded with the following:

We've extensively tested for false positive situations, including replicating system setups for those who have posted claiming they were banned unfairly. We've not found any situations that could produce a false positive, have found that the circumstances for which they were banned were clear and accurate, and we are extremely confident in our findings.

Playing the game on Linux, although not officially supported, will not get you banned – cheating will.